prolepsis.

1. A narrative move that presents or refers to an event before its place in the main chronological sequence.

2. A rhetorical move that anticipates an objection or opposing claim and addresses it before it is raised.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• narrative prolepsis
• a proleptic passage

On the page

Narrative prolepsis showed the burned station before the journey reached it.

The proleptic passage changed how the reader understood the apparently harmless departure.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary. Forms: Usually uncountable; plural prolepses for separate instances. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.